Chapter 9: The Faces of All Beings

Qingming Festival is a three-day holiday. Those spoiled brats who have gone crazy are probably having a wild time right now. This reminds Yun Ye of his own school holidays. He would eat and sleep, sleep and eat, and then drink with his dorm mates until dawn on the first night of school, and finally go to class with dark circles under his eyes.

He felt that he should return to the normal trajectory of life, so he placed a recliner in the garden, covered it with a soft blanket, sank his body into it, and then asked his aunt to cover him with a thick blanket. He yawned beautifully and went to have the most serious conversation with Lord Zhou in the warm spring day.

Grandma doesn’t have the habit of going out in the spring. She stubbornly believes that only loafers spend their days wandering around aimlessly. It’s enough to look up at the green trees in the mountains from her own yard. The flowers on the mountain are not as beautiful as those in her own yard. The roses are in bloom, and you can smell them for a long time. The wildflowers in the ravine are not as good as that. The one she despises most is Sun Simiao, who spends his days digging in the ravine, carrying a hoe and picking wildflowers. He spends all day talking to his grandson about them. Isn’t he a famous doctor? Why don’t you cure the cows at home? The cows are so thin that they don’t even look like cows anymore. The grandson is still good. Look, he’s sleeping so soundly, he’s even dreaming of boxing.

Sun Simiao sighed as he walked past Yun Ye three times. He had given up on the young marquis. He was so lazy that he would rather lie down than sit up. He had the ability to cure people, but he wasted it on laziness. He should have gone to the mountains to find herbs and studied the compatibility of medicines during the beautiful spring. If that didn’t work, he should have studied the acid solution he made the other day thoroughly. How can you hand over the skills you have learned to a bunch of useless people when so many people are kneeling and begging to learn them?

He patted the heads of the Huo Zhi siblings who were following him with his hands wrapped in linen strips. These are good children, diligent, sensible, and persevering. Although the contract of sale was burned clean by Yun Ye, once they are enslaved, they will suffer for life, and they cannot help themselves.

When the child saw that the acid had burned the iron bucket, he tried to hold it in his hands, but he was stopped by himself. It was a little late, and both of their hands were burned.

It was all this guy’s fault. When I saw Yun Ye’s fangs and claws in his sleep, I couldn’t help but get angry. I just took the stuff out and didn’t explain whether it was dangerous or not. I was so happy that I filled a bamboo tube with wax and ran away. I don’t know what I was going to do, and I just threw myself in the room with the pungent smell without asking.

I don’t understand why this stuff would burn the iron. I asked the boy to help me scoop the acid from the tank into the bucket, but I didn’t expect the bucket to rot in a matter of moments. What is this stuff? It’s so poisonous and strange. It only burns people, but it doesn’t cause further harm. What’s the reason?

“Your hands are injured?” Yun Ye rubbed his eyes and asked.

“What do you think?” Sun Simiao held up his right hand and said to Yun Ye.

“You are the best doctor in the world. A simple injury should not be a problem for you, right?”

Sun Simiao’s beard under his chin moved automatically in the wind.

It was too familiar. The prelude to the anger of Lao Cheng, Lao Niu, and the others was to move their beards. Just as he was about to run, Lao Sun’s anger exploded, and he used his good left hand to accurately hit Yun Ye on the head, shouting in his mouth, “I’m going to beat you to death, you evil spirit…”

Yun Ye was not killed, but he apologized to Lao Sun and the little friend Huo Zhu, and promised to find out what the things he had made were actually used for.

Yun Ye had miscalculated again. None of the young masters had been fooling around in Chang’an. As soon as they got home, they were called into their fathers’ study to be asked what they had learned. Fortunately, Yun Ye had the bad habit of leaving homework, so the young masters had to take out their books and exam papers to show their fathers, some of which had to be signed by their fathers.

Yuchi Gong’s family was in a festive mood. The whole family had a big feast to congratulate their young master for finally learning the great skill of calculating the army’s food and fodder. Old Yuchi held his son’s hand and laughed so hard that his mouth couldn’t close.

He thought back to his own days of studying everywhere and hitting a wall everywhere. The teachers from the noble families looked down on him, a blacksmith, and his repeated respectful studies were met with repeated ridicule. He enlisted in the army in a fit of anger and gradually rose in the ranks of the military through his martial prowess. Later, he accidentally saved the emperor, and since then, he has faithfully followed the emperor in his campaigns, which is how he came to have his current title.

The painful experience of his youth studying has always been a thorn in his heart. Every time he thinks of it, he feels a dull pain in his chest. After thinking about the pain, he decided to do his best to cultivate his son and let him fulfill his dream of youth. Unexpectedly, his son inherited his martial courage, but not his mother’s elegance, and learning was extremely difficult. He had long since given up the dream that the Yuchi family would produce a literary man. He had sent his son to Yushan for only two months, and he had already given him such a big surprise. His son, who used to have difficulty counting, could now tell the number of military provisions in a single breath, and he could count from small to large even faster than the accountant.

Yuchi felt that the wine tasted even better today.

Changsun Chong had been sent to Yushan because his father had ordered him to learn Yun Ye’s iron-smelting knowledge and had given him countless strange ideas that Yun Ye had said. This made Changsun Chong very embarrassed and felt sorry for his brother. He had no choice but to follow his father’s orders and act accordingly.

The Changsun family controlled the largest iron foundry in the country. If this life-threatening technology fell into the hands of outsiders, wouldn’t it be the death of the Changsun family? If it weren’t for Yun Ye, and if it were another family, I’m afraid their bodies would have long since turned cold.

When Yun Ye asked him what he planned to learn, Chang Sun Chong’s heart was in turmoil. He was only able to say that he wanted to learn iron smelting after half an hour of struggling. He was prepared to be rejected, but Yun Ye just shrugged and said he was bored. He rummaged around in the study for a long time before pulling out a tattered notebook from under the box and throwing it to him. He said that he had made notes and a little experience in Longyou, and that he should have said so earlier, causing him to spend half a day looking through them and getting covered in dust.

Hearing this, Changsun Chong wanted to crawl into a mouse hole.

Now the notebook that had been copied by Chang Sun Chong was neatly placed on Chang Sun Wu’s desk. He touched the notebook with his fat hands and smiled bitterly, “I have wasted my time being a villain!”

Li Huai Ren was beaten up, beaten up by his father. The screams were so loud that they were unique. It wasn’t that he wasn’t studying hard in Yushan, but his father simply couldn’t understand what he had learned. The whole book was full of hieroglyphics. Before Li Huai Ren could explain, he was beaten up. When Li Huai Ren finally explained clearly, saying that this is a simple new symbol of mathematics, which was stolen by Teacher Ye Zi from the palace of the Great Food. It is a great mystery and the best knowledge in the world. Old Li nodded repeatedly and turned around to beat Li Huai Ren again. Li Huai Ren asked why, and his father said, “There is nothing else, just anger.”

Similarly, or similar scenes are constantly being played out in Chang’an City. With four great scholars teaching, no one would suspect that their own children would waste their time in Yushan. There is no harm in Yun Ye letting his own children get a little smarter. Since the last time Yun Ye openly cheated the Manchurian court and the military and civil officials of more than 20,000 guan of money, his reputation as the smartest child in Chang’an has spread like wildfire.

There is always a good side to a bad thing, just as there is always darkness after the light. Meng had never felt so sad as he did after his conversation with his father. The words were like knives cutting his heart.

When he excitedly showed his father the comments from Mr. Li Gang, his father didn’t seem very happy. He looked at them briefly and then put them aside, saying to him, “I didn’t expect Yushan Academy to be so prestigious. Not only have Mr. Li Gang and Mr. Yushan joined, but also Mr. Niu and Mr. Yun are here . These people are either great moral scholars, or famous historians, or famous generals of our dynasty. The worst of them is the Cloud General, who is a master of the mysterious and unpredictable arts of the occult. These people are all top-notch scholars in Chang’an. You are lucky to be able to study under them.

“My son knows that this is a rare opportunity and will definitely work hard to live up to your expectations.”

“No need. You are impetuous. As long as you live a life of wealth and stability, you will not disappoint your father. I have decided that your brother should go to Yushan three days later. He has always been smart and calm. Although he has not made any progress in recent years, it is because he has not had a good teacher. If he can receive the teachings of several teachers at Yushan for two years, he will definitely become a pillar of the country. Go out and get 100 silver coins from the account room and go out to have fun!”

Meng Youtong walked out of the study like a puppet and went to his bedroom. The young concubine took off his outer clothes and saw that he was silent and did not dare to ask, so she quietly retreated.

For two months, he had been used to studying intensely under the whip of the old bull. He was very tired, but he had never been so fulfilled. The old masters’ lectures were interesting, and he was unconsciously immersed in them. It turned out that learning was so interesting. He followed Yun Ye all over the mountains, identifying plants, looking for minerals, and then classifying and recording them, making them into tables and binding them together to become books. He studied medicine with the Taoist monk Sun Simiao, and although he was always lectured, he was also very happy.

At the foot of the mountain, he taught the villagers to fertilize the land and sow seeds according to Yun Ye’s methods. Although he was being punished at the time, why did he feel so comfortable when he saw the adoring looks of the villagers? The pleasure of throwing away a thousand gold coins in a brothel was not as good as the happy feeling at that time.

I can give my brother money, a title, land, but I can’t give him the opportunity to study at Yushan. Otherwise, I’ll really become the vermin that Mr. Li Gang was talking about.

In the dark of night, Meng Youtong walked alone with his burden on his back on the road to Yushan. He had never been as full of fighting spirit as he was now.